TheDiocese of Frascati (Lat.:Tusculana) is aLatinsuburbicarian see of theDiocese of Rome and adiocese of theCatholic Church inItaly, based atFrascati, near Rome. Thebishop of Frascati is aCardinal Bishop; from the Latin name of the area, the bishop has also been calledBishop of Tusculum.[A] Tusculum was destroyed in 1191. The bishopric moved fromTusculum to Frascati, a nearby town which is first mentioned in the pontificate ofPope Leo IV.[1] Until 1962, the Cardinal-Bishop was concurrently the diocesan bishop of the see.Pope John XXIII removed the Cardinal Bishops from any actual responsibility in their suburbicarian dioceses and made the title purely honorific.
Like other dioceses close toRome, Frascati became a bishopric of choice for Cardinals of powerful papal families during the 17th century; a period known for its unabashednepotism. Frascati Bishops of that era were significantly intertwined:
Antonio Barberini (1655–1661) – nephew ofPope Urban VIII, brother of Taddeo Barberini (Prince of Palestrina), exiled byPope Innocent X, later helped engineer the marriage of his nephew Don Maffeo Barberini to the grand-niece of Pope Innocent X.
Girolamo Colonna (1661–1666) – brother ofAnna Colonna (wife ofTaddeo Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII), uncle of Don Maffeo Barberini and brother-in-law of Antonio Barberini.
Carlo Rossetti (1676–1680) –prelate to Pope Urban VIII and Antonio Barberini, supporter of Giulio Cesare Sacchetti
^Tusculum had earlier been the property of the Monastery of Subiaco: P. Egidi, "L'abbazia sublacense e la signoria di Tuscolo,"Archivio della Società Romana di storia patria 25 (1902), pp. 470–477.
^Source for the period 1044-1130: Rudolf Hüls,Kardinäle, Klerus und Kirchen Roms: 1049–1130, Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom 1977, pp. 138–143
^Giovanni Romano (contemporaries did not call him Marsicano) became a monk at the Abbey of Bec under the well-known Anselm. He became a Canon of Beauvais.Pope Urban II named him Abbot of San Salvatore in Talese, and, in 1099,Pope Paschal II named him Bishop of Tusculum. Around one-third of Pope Paschal's appointments to the College of Cardinals were monks. In 1101 Cardinal Giovanni was sent as Papal Legate to England. In 1108 the Pope appointed him his Vicar for Rome while he travelled to Benevento. In 1111, he and Bishop Leo Marsicano of Ostia organized the resistance against Emperor Henry V, who had just captured the Pope and most of the cardinals. In March 1119 he attended a Synod in Benevento. He died shortly thereafter. Stephan Freund, "Giovanni di Tuscolo",Dizionario biografico degli Italiani 56 (2001).(in Italian) Retrieved: 2016-10-21. K. Ganzer, "Das römische Kardinalkollegium," in:Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche della "Societas christiana" dei secoli XI-XII, I, Papato, cardinalato ed episcopato, (Milano 1974), pp. 153–181. (1100–1119)
^During the period 1130–1138 Gilles followed obedience of Anacletus II. A source for the period 1130-1182: Johannes M. Brixius,Die Mitglieder des Kardinalskollegiums von 1130-1181, Berlin 1912, p. 134
^Some sources[who?] say thatHugh de Saint-Victor was cardinal-bishop of Frascati 1139–1140/41 but Brixius, pp. 91–92 indicates that he should be eliminated from that list.
^Girard was created a cardinal byPope Clement VII of the Avignon Obedience on 17 October 1390, and assigned thetitular church of San Pietro in Vincoli. On 13 June 1405 he was promoted to the See of Tusculum (Frascati) byPope Benedict XIII of the Avignon Obedience. He participated with most of the cardinals of the Avignon and the Roman Obediences in the Council of Pisa and the election ofPope Alexander V. He was Major Penitentiary. He died on 9 November 1415. Eubel, I, p. 28.
Konrad Eubel; Wilhelm van Gulik; Stefan Ehses; Patrick Gauchat; Remigius Ritzler; Pirmin Sefrin, eds. (1923).Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 3 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. (in Latin)
